Customer sentiment driven workflow, said workflow that routes support requests based on sentiment in combination with voice-derived data

ABSTRACT

Systems for leveraging voice information derived from a telephone request for customer support (“RCS”) are provided. The leveraging improves the accuracy of a sentiment analysis performed on a customer support request. The system includes a receiver configured to receive logins. Each login initiates a request. The request includes a date; a time of initiation; a location of a communication device that was used to communicate the request; a device identification number; a message derived from the request; and voice information. The system includes a processor configured to calculate a historical sentiment value, based, at least in part, on artifacts retrieved from historical information associated with the user. The processor obtains a voice sentiment value from the voice information. The processor calculates a total sentiment value based on the historical sentiment value and the voice sentiment value, and then routes the request based on the total sentiment value and the message.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

This disclosure relates to processing customer support requests.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure is directed to receipt and processing of workflowassociated with customer support requests. Often these customer supportrequests include information. This information typically providesindication(s) where, within an entity, to direct the customer supportrequests based on the indications.

Processing customer support requests appropriately can impact customerchurn, company reputation, and sales revenue. A major aspect ofprocessing customer support requests relates to routing customer supportrequests. Determining the optimal way, or at least a more efficient way,to route customer support requests can be difficult. Contributing to thedifficulty of determining the optimal way, or at least a more efficientway, to route customer support requests is the high level of complexityassociated with determining the customer's emotional state and thecustomer's needs attributable, at least in part, to his emotional state.

For example, routing a call from an irate customer to an automatedresponse system may potentially further deteriorate the customerexperience. Moreover, routing a call from an irate customer to anautomated response system may potentially further deteriorate thecustomer relationship in general.

Conversely, a contented customer with a simple question may not want tobe routed to a hold queue for a live operator conversation. In the caseof a contented customer, directing the contented customer to anautomated system or FAQ may often be appropriate.

In addition, public-facing industries incorporate trust as part of theirvalue-add for product offerings. Thus, appropriately routing customersupport requests directed to a public-facing institution often has alarge impact on the reputational health of public-facing institutions.

Yet, available information directly associated with the workflow isoften insufficient to completely accurately process the workflowassociated with customer support requests. Accordingly, it would bedesirable to increase the accuracy of the processing of workflowassociated with customer support requests.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A method for leveraging voice information derived from a telephonerequest for customer support (“RCS”) is provided. The leveragingpreferably improves the accuracy of a sentiment analysis performed on acustomer support request. The method may include receiving voiceinformation from a teleconference. The teleconference may include acustomer support request. The customer support request may include adate of the customer support request; a time of initiation of thecustomer support request; a location of a communication device that wasused to communicate the customer support request; a deviceidentification number associated with the customer support request; amessage derived from the customer support request; and voice informationassociated with the customer support request.

For each customer support request, the method may include harvesting aplurality of artifacts from social media account history and/or otherthird party data source information associated with a user furtherassociated with the device identification number.

The method may further calculate, for each customer support request, ahistorical sentiment value. The calculation of the historical sentimentvalue may be based, at least in part, on the plurality of artifacts andthe historical information associated with the user. The method mayobtain, for each customer support request, a voice sentiment value fromthe voice information. Finally, the method may calculate, for eachcustomer support request, a total sentiment value based on thehistorical sentiment value and the voice sentiment value, and then routethe customer request based on the total sentiment value and the message.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent uponconsideration of the following detailed description, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative database diagram in accordance withprinciples of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative diagram in accordance with principles ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative diagram in accordance with principlesof the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows yet another illustrative diagram in accordance withprinciples of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows still another illustrative diagram in accordance withprinciples of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows yet another illustrative diagram in accordance withprinciples of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 shows still another illustrative diagram in accordance withprinciples of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 shows yet another illustrative diagram in accordance withprinciples of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 shows an illustrative matrix in accordance with principles of thedisclosure;

FIG. 10 shows an illustrative diagram in accordance with principles ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 11 shows an exemplary support center hierarchy;

FIG. 12 shows another exemplary support center hierarchy;

FIG. 13 shows an API response system (or other social communicationsmedia system) for use according to certain embodiments;

FIG. 14 shows an illustrative flow diagram for detecting a negativetrend among customer support requests and providing a response thereto;

FIG. 15 shows an illustrative hybrid schematic diagram for leveragingsocial media data for routing customer service requests;

FIG. 16 shows an illustrative schematic diagram that illustrates oneexemplary way to derive a voice sentiment value;

FIG. 17 shows an exemplary schematic diagram that shows a microprocessorfor combining, for analysis, historical sentiment value with voicesentiment value;

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary flow diagram for producing routinginstructions for a customer support request;

FIG. 19 shows an exemplary customer service request according to certainembodiments;

FIG. 20 shows using a microprocessor to convert historical sentimentvalue, current sentiment value and message information into a currentprofile;

FIG. 21 shows using a microprocessor to analyze a current profile andretrieving a historical profile based on a best fit to the currentprofile to the current profile; and

FIG. 22 shows using a microprocessor to route a customer request inpreferably the most efficient way based on the lessons learned from therouting of, and preferably feedback associated with, one or morecustomer requests that fit fall within a historical profile.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

Sentiment Analysis

The following discussion relates to obtaining customer-sentimentinformation from third party sources. These third party sources may ormay not be directly related to customer support requests.

Individuals, groups and/or entities typically generate and receiveprivate or public messages. Each of the messages typically includes somelevel of sentiment. Such sentiment may be used to analyze the messagesto efficiently process the messages. Moreover, shifts in the sentimentfrom positive to negative and negative to positive, can be analyzed tohelp mitigate the effects of such shifts and/or to augment the benefitscoincident with such shifts.

Since the advent of the digital world, the internet has provided andcontinues to provide a source of opinion-based information. Thisinformation may be culled from a variety of internet channels in whichan entity may voice an opinion. Such internet channels may includeblogs, emails, social media, chats, text messaging, message services orany other suitable opinion-voicing channel. Because of the easeassociated with providing opinions, testimonials and comments on theinternet, there has been a proliferation of written opinions availableregarding a wide variety of topics.

Opinion-based information is used by various industries for a variety ofpurposes. Opinions may be used to understand the public's attitudetowards a product, company or relationship. Public discourse in onlinesources, such as social media, may be correlated with the occurrence ofreal-world behavior.

It would be desirable to analyze the sentiment of publicly availableconsumer identifiable data to provide indicators to inform a system howto more efficiently process customer support requests.

It would be further desirable to analyze the sentiment of publiclyavailable consumer-identifiable data to detect and then remediatedifficulty or augment efficiency in communications associated withcustomer support requests.

Support requests, and historical communications-related thereto, in theform of email, Instant Messaging Service (IMS), phone calls, videochats, Twitter communications such as Tweets™, and other elements (e.g.,response time, escalations, etc.) may be analyzed to define thesentiment of the interactions of an individual, group and/or entitytowards one or more individuals, groups and/or entities and to provide acurrent snapshot thereof. Furthermore, these items may be used toanalyze the sentiment associated with a customer as it relates to aspecific customer support request.

In the current disclosure, public or semi-public information—semi-publicreferring to, for the purposes of this application, protectedinformation accessible using a password or similar access code ordevice—can be leveraged. For example, social media information or datacan be leveraged to better tune the routing and processing current orfuture customer support requests.

In certain embodiments, social media data may be retrieved usingpublically-available APIs (“Application Programming Interfaces”) such asthe Twitter™ API. This data may then be parsed and transformed intostructured data which is then stored in a database. For the purposes ofthis disclosure, at least the following data points may be tracked:date, time, location username and message.

Once social media data has been retrieved, it can be parsed forsentiment analysis utilizing any number of libraries such as the NaturalLanguage Toolkit Sentiment Library. The resulting sentiment score may bestored in a column in a table (see below, sentiment mapping table 106 inFIG. 1) tied to the relevant record.

Topic Analysis

The foregoing has been devoted, primarily, to using sentiment analysisto improve the accuracy and efficiency of responding to customer supportrequests. In addition, topic analysis, as described below, may also beutilized, preferably in combination with sentiment analysis but also, attimes independently, to improve the accuracy and efficiency ofresponding to customer support requests.

For example, if the sentiment associated with a user has been determinedto be happy (sentiment analysis) and the user is asking questionsregarding financial instruments (topic analysis), it could be beneficialto route that customer to a new financial advisor so the new financialadvisor could build up their client book with a happy user.

Conversely, if the customer is unhappy (sentiment analysis) and thecustomer is asking questions about financial instruments (topicanalysis) it may be beneficial to route the unhappy customer to afinancial advisor or portfolio manager with many years of experience.Sending an unhappy customer to a new financial advisor could furtherfrustrate the customer.

The foregoing was one illustration of mining a combination of sentimentanalysis—i.e., the sentiment state of the user—and topic analysis—i.e.,the direct subject matter towards which the customer was directing hisor her customer support request. It should be noted that the topicanalysis could be used for many different type of topics, but that suchinformation could preferably be mined from the customer support requestusing such utilities as the aforementioned libraries including, but notlimited to, the Natural Language Toolkit library.

Voice Analysis

A system for leveraging voice information derived from a telephonerequest for customer support is provided. The system may be used toimprove the accuracy of a sentiment analysis performed on a customersupport request.

The system may include a receiver configured to receive voiceinformation from a teleconference. The teleconference may be intended tocommunicate a customer support request.

The customer support request may include a date of the customer supportrequest. The customer support request may include a time of initiationof the customer support request and a location of a communication devicethat was used to communicate the customer support request. The customersupport request may also include a device identification numberassociated with the customer support request.

The customer support request may include a message derived from thecustomer support request. It should be noted that the message may bederived from the customer support request using natural languageprocessing and/or any other suitable voice to text engine. In addition,the customer support request may include voice information associatedwith the customer support request.

The system may further include a processor. The processor may beconfigured, for each customer support request, to harvest a plurality ofartifacts from a social media account history and/or other third partydata source information associated with a user further associated withthe device identification number. Each of the plurality of artifacts mayinclude sentiment information relevant to the customer support request.

In certain embodiments, the processor is further configured tocalculate, for each customer support request, a historical sentimentvalue. The calculation of the historical sentiment value may be based,at least in part, on the plurality of artifacts and the historicalinformation associated with the user. The processor may be furtherconfigured to obtain, for each customer support request, a voicesentiment value from the voice information.

The processor may be further configured to calculate, for each customersupport request, a total sentiment value based on the historicalsentiment value and the voice sentiment value. The processor may also beconfigured to route the customer request based on the total sentimentvalue, a single one of the historical sentiment value and the voicesentiment value and/or the message.

In some embodiments, the relevance of the sentiment information may beinversely proportional to the magnitude of time between the date and thetime associated with the artifact and the date and the time of thecustomer support request.

In preferred embodiments, each of the users may preferably pre-registerfor the sentiment analysis prior to sending in the customer supportrequest. Such pre-registration may preferably include registering aparticular device for use by the user. Thereafter, when the customersupport request is communicated, the request may identify, eitherpassively or actively, a device from which the customer support requestis communicated. Then, the system may link the request with thepre-registered device. Such linking may preferably provide one exemplaryway to leverage historical information about the device (or the user ofthe device) as part of the sentimental analysis of the customer supportrequest.

In some embodiments, the processor may be further configured tocalculate the voice sentiment value based, at least in part, on one ormore of a tone of the voice, a cadence of the voice, an intensity of thevoice and historical information associated with the user. It should benoted that the voice sentiment value may be calculated based on anysingle voice characteristic or combination of voice characteristicsassociated with the voice information received during theteleconference. The examples of voice characteristics set forth hereinare only intended to provide examples, but not to limit or exclude anyother voice characteristics which may be used to provide voice sentimentinformation.

It should be noted that the historical information described in thisapplication may include a historical baseline tone of the voice, ahistorical baseline cadence of the voice, and a historical baselineintensity of the voice. It should be noted that the historicalinformation associated with the voice sentiment value may be calculatedbased on any single voice characteristic or combination of voicecharacteristics associated with the voice information received duringthe teleconference associated with the customer support request. Theexamples of historical voice characteristic information set forth hereinare only intended to provide examples, but not to limit or exclude anyother voice characteristics which may be used to provide voice sentimentinformation.

AI-Bot Analysis

A system for leveraging artificial intelligence-bot (AI-bot) informationderived from information included in or associated with a customersupport request is provided. The leveraging preferably improves theaccuracy of a sentiment analysis performed on the customer supportrequest.

The system may include a receiver configured to receive the customersupport request. The customer support request may include a date of thecustomer support request; a time of receipt of the customer supportrequest, and a location of a communication device that was used tocommunicate the customer support request. The communication devicetypically includes a device identification number associated with thecustomer support request.

The customer support request typically includes a message.

The system may also include a processor. The processor may be configuredto harvest, for each customer support request, a plurality of artifactsfrom a social media account history and/or other third party data sourceinformation. The artifacts may be associated with a user. The user maybe associated with the device identification number. Each of theplurality of artifacts may include sentiment information relevant to thecustomer support request.

The processor may be further configured to calculate, for each customersupport request, a historical sentiment value. The historical sentimentvalue may be based, at least in part, on the plurality of artifacts andhistorical information associated with the user. In some instances, thehistorical information may be retrieved from previous customer supportrequests associated with the same device identification number. Inaddition, or alternatively, the historical information may be retrievedfrom previous customer interactions with the entity from which thecustomer is requesting support.

The processor may be further configured to build a current profile forthe communication device. The current profile may be based on theplurality of artifacts and the historical information.

The processor may then retrieve, from an AI-bot library, a historicalprofile that provides a best fit to the current profile. The processormay be further configured to route the customer request based on thehistorical profile.

The historical profile may preferably account for success and/or failureof previous responses to the user legacy customer support requests. Forexample, a particular user may have flagged historically difficultsituations with an “urgent” indicator included in an e-mail.

Such an indicator may have been properly responded to in the past byrouting the legacy “urgent” customer support request to a live operator.A proper response may have generated positive customer feedback; whichmay also be recorded and may be used to form a part of the historicalprofile.

Such an indicator may have been improperly responded to in the past byrouting the legacy “urgent” customer support request to an InteractiveVoice Response (IVR) system. The improper response may have generatednegative customer feedback; which may also be recorded and used to formthe historical profile.

In certain embodiments, the relevance of the sentiment information maybe inversely proportional to the magnitude of elapsed time between thedate/time associated with the artifact and the date/time associated withthe customer support request.

The receiver, in certain embodiments, may be further configured toreceive a pre-registration, from each communication device. Thepre-registration may preferably occur prior to receiving the customersupport request.

In some embodiments, the processor may be configured to calculate thebest fit based, at least in part, on historical information received inthe past three months. As noted below, the comparison between thecurrent profile and a best fit historical profile may be implementedusing other data comparison strategies.

The processor may also, in certain embodiments, be further configured tocalculate the best fit based, at least in part, on historicalinformation received from users within the same zip code as thecommunication device.

The message may be derived from the customer support request usingnatural language processing.

It should be noted as well that the routing the customer support requestmay also include selecting a level from among a plurality of levelsdefined in a vertical stratification of the entity. Thereafter, therouting the customer support request may involve matching the selectedlevel with information contained within the message. The matching mayinclude determining a threshold level of matching between the messageand the level.

The foregoing are examples of analyses that an AI-bot may use. Theseforegoing examples may be characterized as using legacy customer supportrequests to tune a response to a current customer request. It should benoted that other suitable information may be used to tune a response toa current customer request.

FIGURES

Apparatus and methods described herein are illustrative. Apparatus andmethods in accordance with this disclosure will now be described inconnection with the figures, which form a part hereof. The figures showillustrative features of apparatus and method steps in accordance withthe principles of this disclosure. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized and that structural, functional andprocedural modifications may be made without departing from the scopeand spirit of the present disclosure.

The steps of methods may be performed in an order other than the ordershown or described herein. Embodiments may omit steps shown or describedin connection with illustrative methods. Embodiments may include stepsthat are neither shown nor described in connection with illustrativemethods.

Illustrative method steps may be combined. For example, an illustrativemethod may include steps shown in connection with another illustrativemethod.

Apparatus may omit features shown or described in connection withillustrative apparatus. Embodiments may include features that areneither shown nor described in connection with the illustrativeapparatus. Features of illustrative apparatus may be combined. Forexample, an illustrative embodiment may include features shown inconnection with another illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 1 shows a possible database implementation of a system according tothe invention. Specifically, FIG. 1 shows an entity relationship map 100for customer sentiment. While map 100 relates to customer sentiment, itshould be noted that map 100 could be used to illustrate any suitablerelationship sentiment according to the embodiments set forth herein.

Message 102 (which is in the form of a table which is a database object)contains various attributes relating to the message. The exemplaryinformation included in message table 102 is a message ID 110, source ID112, username 114, date/time 116, location 118, message (text) 120,and/or sentiment score 122.

Message ID 110 is the primary key (indicated by a key icon labelled PK)for message table 102. As such, message ID 110 represents the onlynecessarily unique attribute of message 102.

Source 104 (which is also in the form of a table) provides attributesregarding the source ID. Attributes for source 104 include source ID 126and name 128. Source ID 126 is the primary key for source 104. As such,source ID 126 represents the only necessarily unique attribute of source104.

Sentiment mapping 106 (which is also in the form of a table) providesattributes regarding the formation and utilization of the sentimentscore. Attributes for sentiment mapping 106 include sentiment mapping ID132, support channel ID 134, minimum score 136 and maximum score 137.Sentiment mapping ID 132 is the primary key for sentiment mapping 106.As such, sentiment mapping ID 132 represents the only necessarily uniqueattribute of sentiment mapping 106.

Table 108 is a support channel table. Attributes for support channel mayinclude support channel ID 140 and name 142. Support Channel ID 140 isthe primary key for support channel 108. As such, support channel ID 140represents the only necessarily unique attribute of support channel 108.

The tables described above in FIG. 1 may be leveraged, in someembodiments, as follows: Message 102 may preferably include a message,which includes a support request. Source ID 104 may preferably includelineage information relating to the data in the message. Sentimentmapping 106 may preferably include information, based at least in parton sentiment, regarding how to appropriately respond to the content asfurther tuned using sentiment in the message. In some embodiments, thetriggering device (not shown) may preferably monitor the information andtrigger a sentiment mitigation (to offset a negative sentiment) orsentiment augmentation (to enhance a positive sentiment) response wheninstructed.

Some embodiments present a hierarchical response (see FIGS. 11 and 12below, and the portion of the specification corresponding thereto) torepresent and/or help guide the routing of the support request based onthe entity hierarchy.

Social media data sets are typically extremely large and unstructured.The large size and lack of structure can make social media data setschallenging to analyze and manipulate through traditional methods. Itshould be noted that a visual interface accordingly to the embodimentssimplifies analysis and enables users to more quickly addressrequests—which may be particularly significant when those requestsinclude negative sentiment. Further—the visual interface can be used toautomatically trigger response(s) to such detected sentiment(s) orsentiment trends. Such responses may remediate alert conditions and/orcorrect sentiment issues preferably simultaneously to the display ofsuch conditions. Such responses may alternatively include augmentingpositive results obtained from requests associated with positivesentiment.

Also, in the event that the support requests, and ensuing communicationsexchanged between a first individual, group or entity and a secondindividual, group or entity, are less positive than the supportrequests, and ensuing communications between the first individual, groupor entity and a third individual, group or entity, requests between thefirst individual, group or entity and the second individual, group orentity may be rerouted for response by the third individual, group orentity and not for response by the second individual, group or entity.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative flow diagram showing intake of a customersupport request, at 202. At step 204, the diagram shows reviewing socialmedia artifacts relating to an originator of the support request.Finally, at step 206, the diagram shows routing the customer supportrequest based on 1) a localized context and various request parametersassociated with the request in combination with 2) the customersentiment derived from social media artifacts.

FIG. 3 shows a more specific rendering of an illustrative flow diagramfor a method associated with a customer support request routing system.In the diagram in FIG. 3, an API, such as Twitter™, receives a supportrequest. This is shown at step 302.

Step 304 shows examining historical events on the API feed whichreceived the support request. In addition, embodiments may includeexamining historical events on an API feed other than the API feed whichreceived the support request. In any case, embodiments teach routing thecustomer support request based at least in part on historical API feedinformation, as shown at 308.

Some embodiments, as shown at step 306, may include examining othersocial media artifacts to derive (additional) customer sentimentregarding the customer associated with the transmitting of the customersupport request. Such customer may be identifiable based on informationin the request.

Thereafter, step 310 shows routing customer support request based onother API feed information and/or relevant social media artifacts. Fromthe foregoing it has been shown that a customer support request may berouted based on information derived from examination of historical APIfeeds as well as relevant social media history.

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative flow diagram which sets forth a generaloverview of the embodiments of the disclosure. At 400, a support requestfrom an individual is received. Mining module, shown at 402, may mine aplurality of artifacts, as shown at 412. The artifacts may be receivedin the form of biometrics 414, telephone calls 416, verbal statements420, conversations 422, SMS (“Short message service”) 422 and phonecalls 424. The artifacts may be associated with the customer supportrequests.

Upon retrieval of one or more artifacts by artifact mining module 402,sentiment analysis scoring module 404 may analyze each of the supportrequests in view of the artifacts retrieved that relate to the supportrequest.

The support requests may be analyzed based on a variety of differentscoring models. The variety of different scoring models may include apolarity-based scoring model, a multi-dimensional vector-based scoringmodel and a two-dimensional scoring model. The different scoring modelswill be described in greater detail below.

The sentiment analysis scoring module may determine a score for eachsupport request. The score may be a composite score retrieved fromnumerous scoring models. The score may be a single number score. Thescore may be a vector.

Upon determination of a score for each of the support requests, areceiving individual, group or entity may be determined for each supportrequest. It should be appreciated that the score determination may beupdated periodically, or continuously, after a customer support requesttransmission.

As described above, a plurality of artifacts may be retrieved inconnection with the support request. The plurality of artifacts may bederived, and scored, in connection with a transmitting individual, groupand/or entity, as shown at 406.

In certain embodiments, the sentiment score derived at 406 may be addedto an aggregate score, as shown at 408. Once normalized, the aggregatescore may more accurately reflect the sentiment state of the customerrequesting the support. Step 410 shows escalating scores or aggregatescores that are higher than a predetermined score, or higher than apredetermined aggregate score, respectively.

An optimal, or appropriate, receiving designee may be determined basedon an algorithmic assessment of a responder to whom the support requestshould be sent. Thereafter, a communication link for bilateralcommunication between the transmitter and receiver may be determined.

The communication link may link the transmitting individual, groupand/or entity to the receiving receiver. In certain embodiments, acommunication link, a receiver, or any other suitable designee may beassociated with an aggregated score.

In one approach, the artifact and scores are maintained and the averageis completely re-executed each time a new artifact is received.

Scores may range from healthy and balanced support request scores tonon-healthy and urgent support request scores. Scores that are greaterthan a predetermined score may include scores that indicate a supportrequest that may be weighted for a high level of urgency or otherwiseweighted.

There may be various response and/or remediation measures that may beimplemented to respond to the customer support request and to lower thescore in a dynamic fashion, as described in more detail below. Themeasures may include routing the support request to a live responder, orother similar high-resource type response, as opposed to sending thesupport request for response by an automated response queue, and/orimplementing any other suitable remediation measures.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative communications map. The illustrativecommunications map may include a variety of individuals, groups and/orentities. The individuals, groups and/or entities shown include entity A(shown at 502), entity B (shown at 504), C (shown at 506), D (shown at508), E (shown at 510), F (shown at 512), G (shown at 514) and H (shownat 516).

Individuals, groups and/or entities A, B, C and D are shown astransmitting individuals, groups and/or entities. A, B, C and D mayrepresent support requestors. Individuals, groups and/or entities E, F,G and H are shown as receiving individuals, groups and/or entities. E,F, G and H may represent support request responders.

Each individual, group and/or entity may be in communication with one ormore of the other individuals, groups and/or entities. Thecommunications may be conducted over communication lines. Thecommunication lines may be virtual communication lines, wiredcommunication lines, wireless communication lines, communication linesthat utilize a network or any other suitable communication lines.

Each communication line shown may connect two or more individuals,groups and/or entities. It should be appreciated that, although thecommunication lines shown connect A, B, C and D to E, F, G and H, theremay be additional communication lines that are not shown. In someembodiments, communication lines may enable communication amongrequestors A, B, C and D, and and/or responders E, F, G and H.

Each communication line may enable one-way or two-way communications.Communication lines that enable one-way communication may pushcommunications from a first individual, group or entity to a secondindividual, group or entity. Communication lines that enable two-waycommunications may push communication from a first individual, group orentity to a second individual, group or entity, and from the secondindividual, group or entity to the first individual, group or entity.Communication lines that are one-way may be parallel to a secondcommunication line that enables the reverse of the one-way communicationline. For example, if a first communication line enables one-waycommunication from entity A to entity E, a parallel communication linemay enable one-way communication from entity E and entity A.

Communication lines shown may include 518 (A-E), 520 (A-F), 522 (A-G),524 (A-H), 526 (B-E), 528 (B-F), 530 (B-G), 532 (B-H), 534 (C-E), 536(C-F), 538 (C-G), 540 (C-H), 542 (D-E), 544 (D-F), 546 (D-G) and 548(D-H).

FIG. 6 shows another illustrative communications map. The communicationsmap may show individual, group or entity E (shown at 602), individual,group or entity F (shown at 604), individual, group or entity G (shownat 606) and individual, group or entity H (shown at 608) communicatingwith individual, group or entity A (shown at 610), individual, group orentity B (shown at 612), individual, group or entity C (shown at 614)and individual, group or entity D (shown at 616).

It should be appreciated that, although the communication lines shownconnect individuals, groups or entities E, F, G and H to individuals,groups or entities A, B, C and D, there may be additional communicationlines that are not shown. In some embodiments, communication lines mayenable communication among individuals, groups or entities E, F, G andH, and among individuals, groups or entities A, B, C and D.

Each communication line may enable one-way or two-way communications.Communication lines that enable one-way communication may pushcommunications from a first individual, group or entity to a secondindividual, group or entity. Communication lines that enable two-waycommunications may push communication from a first individual, group orentity to a second individual, group or entity, and from the secondindividual, group or entity to the first individual, group or entity.Communication lines that are one-way may be parallel to a secondcommunication line that enables the reverse of the one-way communicationline. For example, if a first communication line enables one-waycommunication between individual, group or entity A and individual,group or entity E, a parallel communication line may enable one-waycommunication between individual, group or entity E and individual,group or entity A.

Communication lines shown may include 618 (E-A), 620 (E-B), 622 (E-C),624 (E-D), 626 (F-A), 628 (F-B), 630 (F-C), 632 (F-D), 634 (G-A), 636(G-B), 638 (G-C), 640 (G-D), 642 (H-A), 644 (H-B), 646 (H-C) and 648(H-D).

FIG. 7 shows an illustrative scoring scale. There may be variousdifferent methods or scales for scoring support requests to formulate anaggregate score for the support request. For example, a support requestmay be scored based on its immediate characteristics. In addition, thescore for the support request may be influenced by positive or negativesentiment derived from artifacts associated with the requestor.

A support request may be scored based on polar emotions, such as happyor sad. A support request may be scored in a non-polar scale, such as avector scaling model. A support request may be scored on a collection ofmultiple sentiment scoring methods or models.

Polarity-based scoring scale 702 is shown in FIG. 7. In such a scoringscale, each support request is scored on a polar scale using linguisticscoring methodology. Linguistic scoring methodology may utilize variouslanguage scoring methods, such as natural language processing,computational linguistics and biometrics. For the purposes of thisapplication, natural language processing should be understood to referto Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a subfield of linguistics,computer science, information engineering and artificial intelligenceconcerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural)languages. In particular, NLP refers to how to program computers toprocess and analyze large amounts of natural language data.

The language scoring methodology may also include text analysis. Thetext analysis may analyze various components of the text. It should beappreciated that, to a human reader, certain text components, such assarcasm, exaggerations or jokes may be easily understood. However, acomputer may require special methods to ensure that such linguisticterms are not misinterpreted. Therefore, the text analysis may analyzekey words and phrases, emoticons, characters, length of response,response time between artifacts, related artifacts, negation,exaggeration, jokes and sarcasm.

Based on the linguistic scoring methodology, each artifact may be scoredon a scale of 0% to 100%, as shown at 704 and 706, respectively. 0% mayindicate most positive and 100% may indicate most negative, or in thealternative 0% may indicate most negative and 100% may indicate mostpositive.

It should be appreciated that a polarity-based scale may include twoopposite emotions, whether positive and negative, happy and sad or anyother suitable opposite emotions. Therefore, each support request scoredon a polarity-based score may only be given a sentiment score based onthe polarity of the support request. However, at times, in order tocompensate for the shortcomings of the polarity-based scoring models, anartifact may be scored on multiple polarity-based scoring models, and,the results of the scoring models may be combined.

FIG. 8 shows a multi-dimensional scoring scale. The multi-dimensionalscoring scale may include a plurality of vectors. Each of the vectorsmay correspond to a different emotion or sentiment. The emotions, orsentiments shown, may include positive (802), encouraged (804),satisfied (806), happy (808), calm (810), assurance (812), unintelligent(814), prevented (816), negative (818), aggravated (820), frustrated(822), sad (824), anger (826), fear (828), intelligent (830) andpromoted (832).

Vector 834 may be a vector generated from a support request. The supportrequest may include a plurality of attributes. The support request maybe broken down into component parts. The attributes and the componentparts may be used to plot the support request on the multi-dimensionalscoring scale.

The sentiment of the support request plotted as vector 834 may be shownin-between intelligent and promoted. It should be appreciated that themulti-dimensional scoring scale may be used to determine the sentimentof a support request—with or without sentiment adjustment associatedwith retrieved artifacts.

The multi-dimensional scoring scale may include a plurality of otheremotions, not shown. In some embodiments, the multi-dimensional scoringscale may utilize any suitable emotion chart.

FIG. 9 shows another multi-dimensional scoring scale. Themulti-dimensional scoring scale may be three-dimensional. Thethree-dimensional scoring scale may include an x-dimension (horizontal),a y-dimension (vertical) and a z-dimension (depth; in thetwo-dimensional representation of the figure, into and out of the planeof the page). Vectors that represent emotions may be plotted on thethree-dimensional scoring scale.

A vector may have multiple dimensions, such as an x-dimension, ay-dimension and a z-dimension. As such, a vector may be plotted on thethree-dimensional scoring scale that comprises an x-dimension,y-dimension and z-dimension. Each plotted emotion may be represented bya vector, such as vector 902 that represents emotion 1, vector 904 thatrepresents emotion 2, vector 906 that represents emotion 3 and vector908 that represents emotion 4.

Build of a vector, or orientation of a vector, could be based on one ormore of a combination of sentiments or emotions. In some embodiments,vector length could correspond to magnitude or intensity of a vector.

Each plotted vector that represents an emotion may have two extremes.For example, a vector may represent a range of happiness and sadness.Each point of the vector may represent a different value in the range ofhappiness and sadness. At the (0,0,0) point, the vector may representneutrality—e.g., neither happy nor sad. The further a location pointsfound on the vector is above the (0,0,0) point may represent anincreasing degree of happiness over neutrality, while the further alocation point found below the (0,0,0) point may represent an increasingdegree of sadness over neutrality.

Upon the receipt of a support request, the support request may be brokendown into component parts. The component parts may be used to generate avector. The vector may be plotted on a multi-dimensional scoring scale,such as the one shown in the matrix depicted in FIG. 9. Such a vectormay be shown at 910. Vector 910 may represent the sentiment of artifact1. Such an artifact may be retrieved as it relates to a pre-determinedcustomer support request.

Because sentiment of a support request may be multi-faceted—i.e., mayinclude multiple emotions—vector 910 may represent the sentiment ofsupport request with respect to the emotion vectors.

In some embodiments, the emotion vector, or vectors, that most closelyrepresents the sentiment of the support request may be displayed to theuser. In certain embodiments, a detailed score including the variouscomponents of the support request may be shown.

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary customer support request sentiment analysisreport. In the sentiment analysis report, the various parameters thatmay affect the sentiment analysis used for routing of the customersupport request, may be analyzed separately.

The parameters may include support requests in the form of biometrics(1002), verbal sentiments (1004), conversational tone (1006), telephonecall parameters (1008) and thread analysis parameters (1010). Exemplarycomponents of the analysis for each of the parameters may be shown at1012 (body temperature, bodily movement), 1014 (voice analysis, syntax,sentence structure), 1016 (content, relationship to other party), 1018(call circumstance, location of other party) and 1020 (historicalstatements in thread, other social media thread statements, etc.). Itshould be appreciated that the analysis shown in FIG. 10 may be based ona polarity-based scoring model (as described above in more detail).However, any suitable scoring model may be used to generate an analysis.

Such a sentiment analysis report may be useful in determining whichsupport request is the most urgent. Such an analysis report alsopreferably takes into account the requester's current state of emotions,as well as the historical context in which the request is being made.

FIG. 11 shows an illustrative diagram of a hierarchy 1108 of anexemplary support center 1100 according to certain embodiments. Supportrequester call-in devices are shown at 1102. These devices are shown ascalling in to a support request routing engine 1104. Engine 1104interfaces between the requesters and center 1100.

At 1112, escalation option is shown. This escalation option preferablyenables a support center employee to escalate a matter to support centermiddle management. Support center middle management may include one ormore support center managers 1114 (shown as Manager A, M.A., and ManagerB, M.B.).

Executive management shows vice president 1117, accessible by escalationoption 1115, and president 1118, accessible by escalation option 1116.

Hierarchy 1108 visually indicates that calls may be routed from call-indevices 1102 to support request routing engine 1104. From supportrequest routing engine 1104 calls may be routed to one of the supportcenter employees A-C, or auto-response systems such as auto-responsesystem 1106. In certain exceptional situations, calls may be routed fromengine 1104 directly to a manager 1114 (M.B.).

Engine 1104 may preferably route the support request based on contextand request parameters of the request in combination with the customersentiment derived at least in part from social media artifacts, as shownin detail in FIGS. 2-4, and especially at element 206 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 12 shows a support center hierarchy 1206 similar to the supportcenter hierarchy 1106 shown in FIG. 11. As depicted, elements 1202,1204, 1206, 1210, 1212, 1214, 1215, 1216, 1217, and 1218 are all similarto the corresponding elements 1102, 1104, 1106, 1110, 1112, 1114, 1115,1116, 1117, and 1118 shown in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 additionally shows an API feed 1230, a parsing engine 1232 forparsing the API feed and a response system 1234. It should be notedthat, in some embodiments, API feed 1230 and parsing engine 1232 may beincluded as components of response system 1234. In other embodiments,API feed 1230 and parsing engine 1232 may be separate from responsesystem 1234. Both of the foregoing options—i.e., where API feed 1230 andparsing engine 1232 are included as components of response system 1234,and where API feed 1230 and parsing engine 1232 are separate fromresponse system 1234, are within the scope of the current disclosure.

API feed 1230 preferably acts as a conduit to receive support requestsin the form of social media communications such as Tweets. Once thesupport requests have been received, the support requests may be parsedby parsing engine 1232 for date, time, location, name of requester andmessage content. Thereafter, response system 1234 may redirect thesupport request to either an employee in the support center 1210,auto-response system in the support center 1206 or a manager 1214.

Algorithms at use in response system 1234 may preferably take intoaccount the sentiment score related to the support request, such assentiment score 122 set forth in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, responsesystem 1234 may route the request based on the historical informationavailable in API feed 1230 associated with the incoming support request.As such, response system 1234 may query API feed 1230.

Furthermore, response system 1234 may also, in certain embodiments,preferably route the support request based on context and requestparameters of the request in combination with the customer sentimentderived at least in part from social media artifacts, as shown in detailin FIGS. 2-4, and especially at element 206 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 13 shows, in more detail, an API response system (or other socialcommunications media system). The system shown in FIG. 13 shows anexemplary schematic rendering of response system 1234 shown in FIG. 12.

The system shown in FIG. 13 may include, for example, an API feed 1310.This may be an internal feed—i.e., within an entity or the systemindependently—or an external feed that receives support requests.

The system may include a natural language toolkit 1308. Toolkit 1308 maybe used for parsing an incoming support request for sentiment analysis.

Once the support request has been parsed, and analyzed for customersentiment, the support request may be routed to 1) a human operator1302, 2) an auto-response system 1314 and/or 3) a frequently askedquestions (FAQ) repository 1306.

FIG. 14 shows an illustrative flow diagram 1400 for detecting a negativetrend and responding thereto. Illustrative flow diagram 1400 may utilizea public API or other device to collect artifacts, as shown at 1402.

Based on this information, illustrative flow diagram 1400 may detect anegative sentiment trend, as shown at 1404. It should be noted that thisdetection may occur at the dashboard level, or using a dashboard. In anycase, flow 1400 may exist with or without dashboard utilization.

At step 1406, flow 1400 may include auto-selecting, in response todetection of a negative sentiment trend at 1404, one or moretrend-mitigating options. Such selection may be based on machinelearning (ML) that is based on the success or failure of historicaltrend mitigating options. Furthermore, such selection can be tuned, asset forth in more detail below with regards to the portion of thespecification relating to post trend mitigation feedback 1410.

Such trend-mitigating options may include transmission of one or moree-mails (to relevant parties) 1412, transmission of one or moreelectronic-text messages (to relevant parties) 1414, transmission of oneor more electronically-generated telephone calls (to relevant parties)1416 and transmission of one or more electronically-generated chatcommunications (to relevant parties) 1418. Such transmission, withtrend-mitigating messaging, may serve to offset other trend-generatingstimuli.

Thereafter, flow 1400 may include invoking trend-mitigating option 1406.Following invocation of trend-mitigating option 1406, flow 1400 mayinclude receiving post trend mitigation feedback, as shown at 1410. Suchfeedback 1410 may be used to select one or more additionaltrend-mitigating options as shown at 1406 in an additional round(s) oftrend mitigation. It should be noted that ML may be used to select whichoption should be used to further mitigate. For example, trend-mitigatingtext-messaging may be invoked when an immediate trend-mitigationresponse is called for.

FIG. 15 shows an illustrative hybrid schematic diagram for leveragingsocial media data for routing customer service requests. Social mediaaccount history data 1502 includes artifacts 1508. Third party datasource information 1506 includes other artifacts 1510. Artifacts 1508and 1510 are both related either to a user and/or to a usercommunication device. All artifacts 1508 and 1510 preferably includesentiment information, as described above, that relate to the userand/or the user communication device. Furthermore, historicalinformation 1504 also preferably reveals information relating to thesentiment of a user. Such historical information may include previoushistory of the user and/or communication device vis-à-vis the system. Itshould be noted that more recent historical information may be givenmore weight than less recent historical information.

Microprocessor 1512 preferably receives artifacts 1508 related to thesocial media account history 1502, historical information 1504associated with the user and artifacts 1510 related to third party datasource information 1506. Based on these various categories ofinformation, microprocessor 1512 preferably calculates a historicalsentiment value 1514. The historical sentiment value may characterizethe requester's current state in view of his or her historical responseto other situations similar to the one for which he or she is currentlyrequest support.

FIG. 16 shows an illustrative schematic diagram that illustrates oneexemplary way to derive a voice sentiment value—an indication of therequestor's sentiment as it is expressed in his or her voice. Thevoice-generated customer support request is shown at 1602.

The voice-based customer support request typically includes a date 1604,a time of initiation 1606, a location of the device which istransmitting the information 1608, a device ID number 1610, a message1612 and/or voice information 1614. All the foregoing information ispreferably received and preferably stored by receiver 1616.

Microprocessor 1618 (it should be noted that all microprocessorsillustrated and/or described herein may be the same—i.e., a singlemicroprocessor—or may be different microprocessors) may preferablyderive from one or more than one of 1604-1618 a voice sentiment value1620. Voice sentiment value 1620 may preferably provide an indication ofthe requestor's sentiment as it is expressed in his or hervoice-communicated customer support request.

Such derivation of voice sentiment value 1620 may preferably provide anindication of the requester's current emotional state, the requester'scurrent health state, or other aspects of the requester's currentpsychological/physical/financial state or other relevant state.

FIG. 17 is an exemplary schematic diagram that shows microprocessor 1706combining, for analysis, historical sentiment value 1702 with voicesentiment value 1704. The combination of historical sentiment value 1702with voice sentiment value 1704 enables the system to more finely tunethe analysis of the sentiment of the requester. It should be noted,however, that in certain embodiments, only one or the other sentimentvalue may be used to analyze the sentiment of the requester. It shouldalso be noted that one or the other sentiment value, or one or morecomponents of each, may be weighted to arrive at different desiredoutcomes.

In response to analyzing the one or both of historical sentiment value1702 with voice sentiment value 1704, microprocessor 1706 may preferablyobtain a total sentiment value.

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary flow diagram for producing routinginstructions for a customer support request. A message 1802 that formsthe customer support request may preferably be retrieved bymicroprocessor 1806. The total sentiment value 1804 may preferably beretrieved by microprocessor 1806. These two pieces of information—i.e.,message 1802 and the total sentiment value 1804—may preferably beretrieved by microprocessor 1806 in order to generate routinginstructions for the customer support request, as shown at 1808.

Such routing instructions may include routing the customer request toany one or more of the following:

1) A highly-qualified human responder;

2) A newly-hired human responder;

3) A chat responder (when the user is requesting support using achat-enabled device);

4) An e-mail responder (when the user is requesting support using ane-mail-enabled device);

5) An interactive voice response (IVR) system;

6) Interactively provided customer support selection options (for ahuman responder, press 1, for a chat responder press 2, etc.)

7) A combination of one or more of the foregoing.

It should be reiterated that an in-depth knowledge of a requester'ssentiment, especially knowledge that takes into account historicalsentiment as well as voice-derived current sentiment, may be useful indetermining which routing option is at least appropriate and, at best,optimal for a newly-received customer support request. The sentimentcontext from which the request was generated (both the historicalcontext as well as the current context) may influence the approach toresponding to the customer support request.

It should also be noted that the time of response of the system may alsobe determined based on account historical sentiment as well asvoice-derived current sentiment. For example, a customer support requestthat is determined, from any reliable source, to be urgent maypreferably be acted on more quickly, thereby improving response accuracyand appropriateness to high priority situations, than a customer supportrequest that is determined to be relatively less urgent.

FIG. 19 shows an embodiment of an exemplary customer service request1902. Such a customer service request 1902 may include a date 1904, atime of initiation 1906, a location of device which is transmitting theinformation 1908, a device ID number 1910 and/or a message 1912.

Receiver 1914 preferably receives and stores the information in customersupport request 1902. This occurs preferably under the instruction ofmicroprocessor 1916. Thereafter, microprocessor 1918 derives a currentsentiment value 1918 associated with the customer support request 1902.In certain embodiments, microprocessor may also derive a historicalsentiment value (not shown in FIG. 19) similar to the process shown inFIG. 15, which illustrates microprocessor 1512 deriving a historicalsentiment value 1514 based on historical information as well as thirdparty artifacts.

FIG. 20 shows using microprocessor 2008 to convert historical sentimentvalue 2002, current sentiment value 2004 and message information 2006into a current profile 2010. FIG. 21 then shows using microprocessor2014 to analyze current profile 2102 and retrieving a historical profilebased on a best fit to the current profile 2106—i.e., processorretrieves a profile that shares the most common characteristics with thecurrent profile. While a best fit algorithm is described herein toobtain an historical customer service request profile and feedbackassociated therewith that fits most closely with the current customerservice request, it should be noted that any suitable data comparisonalgorithm may be used to obtain relevant historical informationregarding to provide context for responding to the customer servicerequest.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 22, microprocessor 2204 routes customerservice requests in preferably the most efficient way based on theinformation derived from the routing of, and feedback associated with,one or more customer requests that fall within the historical profile.Algorithms that determine the most efficient way, or relatively higherefficiency paths, to route customer service requests preferably takeinto account the relevant history of the customer requests that fallwithin the historical profile. Based on this relevant history, themicroprocessor may make routing decisions regarding the customer supportrequest that is currently being analyzed.

Thus, a customer-sentiment driven workflow based on social media dataand voice information, is provided. Persons skilled in the art willappreciate that the present invention can be practiced by other than thedescribed embodiments, which are presented for purposes of illustrationrather than of limitation. The present invention is limited only by theclaims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for leveraging voice information derivedfrom a telephone request for customer support (“RCS”), said leveragingfor improving the accuracy of a sentiment analysis performed on acustomer support request, the system comprising: a receiver configuredto receive voice information from a teleconference, the teleconferenceintended to communicate a customer support request, said customersupport request comprising: a date of the customer support request; atime of initiation of the customer support request; a location of acommunication device that was used to communicate the customer supportrequest; a device identification number associated with the customersupport request; a message derived from the customer support request;and voice information associated with the customer support request; aprocessor, said processor configured, for each customer support request,to harvest a plurality of artifacts from social media account historyand/or other third party data source information associated with a userand further associated with the device identification number, each ofsaid plurality of artifacts comprising sentiment information relevant tothe customer support request; wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to calculate, for each customer support request, a historicalsentiment value, the calculation of said historical sentiment valuebeing based, at least in part, on the plurality of artifacts and thehistorical information associated with the user; wherein the processoris further configured to obtain, for each customer support request, avoice sentiment value from the voice information; and wherein theprocessor is further configured to calculate, for each customer supportrequest, a total sentiment value based on the historical sentiment valueand the voice sentiment value, and to route the customer request basedon the total sentiment value and the message.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the relevance of the sentiment information is inverselyproportional to the magnitude of time between the date and the timeassociated with the artifact and the date and the time of the customersupport request.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the userspre-registers for the sentiment analysis prior to sending in thecustomer support request.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein theprocessor is further configured to calculate the voice sentiment valuebased, at least in part, on one or more of a tone of the voice, acadence of the voice, an intensity of the voice and historicalinformation associated with the user.
 5. The system of claim 1, whereinthe historical information further comprises a historical baseline toneof the voice, a historical baseline cadence of the voice, and ahistorical baseline intensity of the voice.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein the message is derived from the customer support request usingnatural language processing.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein therouting the customer support request further comprises selecting a levelfrom among a plurality of levels defined in a vertical stratification ofthe entity and matching that level with information contained within themessage, said matching comprising determining a threshold level ofmatching between the message and the level.
 8. A method for leveragingvoice information derived from a telephone request for customer support(“RCS”), said leveraging for improving the accuracy of a sentimentanalysis performed on a customer support request, the method comprising:receiving, using a receiver, voice information from a teleconference,the teleconference comprising a customer support request, the customersupport request comprising: a date of the customer support request; atime of initiation of the customer support request; a location of acommunication device that was used to communicate the customer supportrequest; a device identification number associated with the customersupport request; a message derived from the customer support request;and voice information associated with the customer support request; foreach customer support request, harvesting, using a processor, aplurality of artifacts from social media account history and/or otherthird party data source information associated with a user furtherassociated with the device identification number, each of said pluralityof artifacts comprising sentiment information relevant to the customersupport request; wherein the processor is further configured tocalculate, for each customer support request, a historical sentimentvalue, the calculation of said historical sentiment value being based,at least in part, on the plurality of artifacts and the historicalinformation associated with the user; wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to obtain, for each customer support request, a voicesentiment value from the voice information; and wherein the processor isfurther configured to calculate, for each customer support request, atotal sentiment value based on the historical sentiment value and thevoice sentiment value, and to route the customer request based on thetotal sentiment value and the message.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinthe relevance of the sentiment information is inversely proportional tothe magnitude of time between the date and the time associated with theartifact and the date and the time of the customer support request. 10.The method of claim 8, wherein the system is configured to enable theuser to pre-register for the sentiment analysis prior to sending in thecustomer support request.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein theprocessor is further configured to calculate the voice sentiment valuebased, at least in part, on one or more of a tone of the voice, acadence of the voice, an intensity of the voice and historicalinformation associated with the user.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein the historical information further comprises a historicalbaseline tone of the voice, a historical baseline cadence of the voice,and a historical baseline intensity of the voice.
 13. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the message is derived from the customer supportrequest using natural language processing.
 14. The method of claim 8,wherein the routing the customer support request further comprisesselecting a level from among a plurality of levels defined in a verticalstratification of the entity and matching that level with informationcontained within the message, said matching comprising determining athreshold level of matching between the message and the level.
 15. Asystem for leveraging voice information derived from a telephone requestfor customer support (“RCS”), said leveraging for improving the accuracyof a sentiment analysis performed on a customer support request, thesystem comprising: a receiver configured to receive a plurality oflogins, each of the logins intended to initiate a customer supportrequest, said customer support request comprising: a date of thecustomer support request; a time of initiation of the customer supportrequest; a location of a communication device that was used tocommunicate the customer support request; a device identification numberassociated with the customer support request; a message derived from thecustomer support request; and voice information associated with thecustomer support request; a processor, said processor configured tocalculate, for each customer support request, a historical sentimentvalue, the calculation of said historical sentiment value being based,at least in part, on a plurality of artifacts retrieved historicalinformation associated with the user; wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to obtain, for each customer support request, a voicesentiment value from the voice information; and wherein the processor isfurther configured to calculate, for each customer support request, atotal sentiment value based on the historical sentiment value and thevoice sentiment value, and to route the customer request based on thetotal sentiment value and the message.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein the relevance of the sentiment information is inverselyproportional to the magnitude of time between the date and the timeassociated with the artifact and the date and the time of the customersupport request.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the userspre-registers for derivation of the historical sentiment value prior toinitiation of the customer support request.
 18. The system of claim 15,wherein the processor is further configured to calculate the voicesentiment value based, at least in part, on one or more of a tone of thevoice, a cadence of the voice, an intensity of the voice and historicalinformation associated with the user.
 19. The system of claim 18,wherein the historical information further comprises a historicalbaseline tone of the voice, a historical baseline cadence of the voice,and a historical baseline intensity of the voice.
 20. The system ofclaim 19, wherein the message is derived from the customer supportrequest using natural language processing.
 21. The system of claim 15,wherein the routing the customer support request further comprisesselecting a level from among a plurality of levels defined in a verticalstratification of the entity and matching that level with informationcontained within the message, said matching comprising determining athreshold level of matching between the message and the level.